03/03/2022

ARPA Assisted Living Provider Relief Funding

The Ohio Department of Aging and Ohio Department of Medicaid conducted a call today for Ohio’s assisted living facilities on the process for applying for the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) funding outlined in House Bill 169. Ohio has provided additional information on the funding on the Ohio Grants Partnership webpage. This funding includes $33 million for assisted living facilities. Facilities can receive $500 per licensed bed. Additional details on the funding can be found on the Relief for Assisted LIving Facilities webpage. Assisted Living facilities must complete the online eligibility application through the Ohio grant portal. The application must be completed in one sitting. Information cannot be saved and finished at a later time. NOTE: The first step requires the assisted living facility to obtain an Ohio supplier ID if the entity does not already have one. ODA has provided a guide on obtaining the supplier ID on the ODA workforce incentive payment webpage.

The instructional webinar today includes slides that walked assisted living facilities through the eligibility application process and Ohio supplier process. A few key points from the presentation and information that will be needed at the time of application includes:

• 10-digit OAKS supplier ID
• Reminder to enter “0” for DUN number
• Invitation ID – this is the five-digit code that begins with 55. All AL’s have an invitation code for the COVID Care Center portal, and the invitation ID is in the COVID Care Center profile home page. If a facility cannot their invitation code or cannot access the COVID Care Center portal then they can email COVIDTesting@age.ohio.gov 
• ODH license number (1234R) ends with an “R”
• Facility name as it appears on ODH license
• Tax ID/EIN number
• Required documents for upload – there are no required documents to be uploaded so facilities are to skip this item
• Compensated officials – Facilities will answer yes or not to the question “In your organization’s preceding completed fiscal year, did your organization receive 80 percent or more of its annual gross revenues in Federal awards and $25,000,000 or more in annual gross revenues from Federal awards?”
• Agreement authorized representative – main executive within the organization
• Grant contact – ODA prefers this be a separate person. There must be two different distinct emails between the grant contact and the authorized representative.

The presentation finished by walking facilities through the guide on how to complete the supplier registration, which must be requested via a different portal. The Ohio Department of Aging sent out different letters to providers depending on whether they already had a supplier ID or did not. If a facility already has a supplier ID then they will go directly to the grant portal. If the facility doesn’t have the supplier ID or if information is needing updated, the facility will go to supplier portal. The facility must first create an Ohio ID by going to OH|ID webpage then going to Ohio Supplier Portal to register or update the business information which will include the Tax ID (must match business name) and registration ID (which is not your supplier ID). Facilities were alerted to allow 10-15 business days to receive their supplier ID. Once the facility receives the supplier ID, they will go to the grants portal to apply for funding.

On the call attendees learned that an FAQ document was being developed, but the call did answer the following questions:

• Are facilities that do not have Medicaid waiver beds eligible? – Yes, as long as they have licensed assisted living beds.
• If a provider applies today, how soon will they receive payment? – Allow at least 10-15 business days to become a supplier, then go to the grants portal to apply. Within 2 weeks of approved application, the state should be able to send payment out.
• Application process – When inputting the address, is it office mailing address or facility address? The address must match the address associated with the supplier ID.
• Do authorized representative and grant contact have to be different people? – The portal requires two different email addresses so will have to give at least two distinct email addresses.
• What if an organization has the same supplier ID for multiple facilities? Do they need separate for each they manage? Does it need to be a separate for each facility they manage? Yes, there needs to be a separate application for each facility. It is okay for supplier information to be common among each of the facilities. 
• How would the facilities receive the 5-digit invitation code? All assisted living communities have access to the COVID care center account. It can be found on the home page in the upper right corner.  
• Is there any direct utilization of how these funds are to be used? There are no requirements related to how providers use the funds, but the Administration encouraged using them to support the direct care workforce. Furthermore, there is no required reporting of how the funds are used, but could be subject to future audits.